Letters to the editor - 14/06

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Posh anti-capitalists

[Re: Forget the Old Etonian chumocracy: The Tories are at their least aristocratic ever, yesterday]

“Simply tosh” says Michael Mosbacher. The idea (he says) that Margaret Thatcher had to battle against “One Nation” toffs to push through her radical free-market reforms is nonsense! Hmm. He supports this strange claim with two arguments. One, David Cameron’s cabinet is less posh than Thatcher’s. And two, that though there are some really rich Tory MPs, there also some really rich Labour MPs. But this surely doesn’t stand up. Everyone knows that Thatcher’s cabinets were stuffed with posh Tories. That’s why she had such a hard time. As for arguing that, although the green rich Tory socialist Zac Goldsmith is worth £75m, we should remember that the green rich Labour socialist Margaret Hodge is worth £18m, I am not sure how far that gets us. We know that posh anti-capitalism is not confined to the Tory party. The important point is this: the discontent with Cameron and his Eton chums is not mere inverted snobbery. We suspect that these posh One Nation Tories have no desire and no intention of doing what needs to be done – to cut public spending (by a gigantic amount) and slash taxes.

Martin Durkin

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